CURTIS: Penny Wong, welcome to ABC News 24.
WONG: Good to be with you Lyndal.
CURTIS: Can you win a debate on climate change and emissions trading if the public thinks the Prime Minister started with a deception?
WONG: Yes we can win a debate when it comes to pricing carbon, but it will be a tough debate. It will be a tough debate because we will face a ferocious scare campaign because that is one thing Tony Abbott is good at. Hes good at wrecking, opposing and running a scare campaign.
But it will be a tough debate. But its one we will win and we need to win because it is the right thing to do for the nations future.
CURTIS: Dont you, though, face a problem if the public perceives that there is a problem with the Prime Ministers truthfulness from the start? Because politics is, after all, a matter of perception isnt it?
WONG: Well what I would say to people is this. The Labor Party has made very clear for many years that we are serious about taking action on climate change, that we want to put a price on carbon. We spent a lot of the last term trying to put a price on carbon and were stopped because Tony Abbott and the Greens voted against it in the Senate.
The Prime Minister made clear she wanted to put a price on carbon. It is the case that our policy is clearly for an emissions trading scheme. And in order to get that through the Parliament, what we are proposing is a fixed price period which, as the Prime Minister has conceded, does operate like a tax, a tax on polluters.
But the choice we face is do we work with this Parliament to try and do something we think is in the national interest, that we have always said we want to do. Or do we just say, oh well, we cant get it through unless the Parliament changes its mind.
Now obviously weve taken the first course. We think we should work through this Parliament. Thats what were doing, talking to the Multi Party Committee, a range of different parliamentarians to try and take action on climate change. Its the right thing to do.
CURTIS: Youve accused Tony Abbott of running a fear campaign. But isnt the way youve run the debate left the door open to that fear campaign? Because people who are worried about their cost of living, worried about prices rising anyway dont have any certainty, dont have any answers from you on what a carbon tax or an eventual emissions trading scheme will do to their prices.
WONG: Lyndal, it wouldnt matter what we said, Tony Abbott would still make it up. It wouldnt matter if we put everything out there. Tony Abbott would still makes things up because he wants to pretend that the sky is somehow going to fall in if Australia does what John Howard said wed do, which is to price carbon.
It is a big reform. We are proposing a big reform. Weve outlined the mechanism, just as John Howard said this is the mechanism I will use. It is true, we also have to go through a very detailed discussion with the Australian people about the various parts of this policy as we discuss it in the Parliament and also with the Australian community.
But what I will say is this. Tony Abbotts scare campaign would be running no matter what the Government put forward because fundamentally he wants to wreck and oppose because he sees political advantage.
CURTIS: Peter Costellos press secretary during the time of the GST implementation, Niki Savva, has made the point in an article today that the Coalition Government suffered an electoral setback at the election it took the GST to and then was in trouble for some years afterwards. You dont have the electoral buffer that the Coalition had then. Do you have those years to convince the public that what youre doing is the right thing?
WONG: I think everybody in the Government would agree this is a tough fight. But it is the right fight. Because fundamentally this is about cutting pollution, tackling climate change and moving to a clean energy economy. Climate change is not going to go away. The need to move our economy to a clean energy economy is not going to go away.
This is a long term reform. And just as we had the long term economic reforms like lowering tariffs or floating the dollar, just like we had people opposing those, so to will we have people opposing this reform. We have to keep our shoulder to the wheel, we will continue to argue it. Yes it will be tough but as Ive said, as Julias said, as the Government is saying, it is the right thing to do.
CURTIS: As part of the GST reform, the Coalition committed to cutting some taxes. Is that an option for this time round, to look at something like the fuel excise which John Howard froze, so its not raising as much revenue as it could, is that a tax that could go to try and appease some of the voters concerns?
WONG: There are a lot of options that the Government will have to consider, that the Minister Greg Combet through his consultation processes will have to consider. Weve said our first priority as a Labor Government, consistent with Labor values of fairness, will be to look at those Australian families who do need assistance. That will be our first priority.
And weve also said we will ensure that we will look at how we manage the transition for Australian industry. These all policy things we need to consider, we will work through them methodically. And well do that at a time when we know well continue to get the negative fear campaign from Mr Abbott. But weve got to keep our heads down and continue to focus on getting the policy framework right and talking to both the Australian people and also Members of Parliament about this.
CURTIS: As Finance Minister you have some responsibility for the Budget. Will this carbon tax emissions trading scheme be cost neutral or will we start to see an impact on the forward estimates in the Budget thats coming up?
WONG: Well the Budget is something that we are working on. As you know the date of the carbon price commencing is something the Prime Minister has announced but obviously the legislation is not yet through the Parliament, its not even in the Parliament. So that gives you some indication of the timeframe.
But this budget area, this program, this policy, along with all Government policies has to occur within the framework of the Governments broader fiscal rules, which is were coming back to surplus in 2012-13. Were going to manage any growth in real expenditure to 2 per cent or less. And well keep taxation as a proportion of GDP to below that which Peter Costello and John Howard delivered.
CURTIS: Penny Wong, thank you very much for your time.
WONG: Good to speak with you Lyndal.
ENDS